engaging online: case study and redesigning of bcbusiness...
TRANSCRIPT
Engaging Online: Case Study and Redesigning of
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter
by
Aleena Deandra
B.A. (Accounting), University of Surabaya, 2013
Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Publishing
in the
Publishing Program
Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology
© Aleena Deandra 2019
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Summer 2019
Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use
is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation.
ii
APPROVAL
Name: Aleena Deandra
Degree: Master of Publishing
Title of Project: Engaging Online: Case Study and Redesigning of BCBusiness
Daily Newsletter
SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE
Leanne Johnson
Senior Supervisor
Lecturer
Publishing Program _________________________
Suzanne Norman
Supervisor
Lecturer
Publishing Program _________________________
Nick Rockel
Industry Supervisor
Editor in Chief
BCBusiness Magazine, Burnaby, BC. _________________________
Date Approved: August 6, 2019
iii
ABSTRACT
We live in an era when technology is rapidly changing and the barriers of communication
are vastly diminishing. Although many new methods of communicating with customers
have been developed over time, e-mail has always been one of the most effective.
Businesses all around the world have been trying to increase their customer engagement
and market their products through e-mail marketing.
In late 2016, BCBusiness—BC’s only business-specific magazine—published its first
daily newsletter. Over the years, as more competitors entered the marketplace,
BCBusiness found that it needed to revitalize its newsletter to improve customer
engagement. This report covers the redesign process of BCBusiness’s Daily Newsletter
and analyzes its effectiveness based on the back-end data gathered from
ActiveCampaign, their e-mail marketing tool. This report will also provide suggestions
that would improve their newsletter’s marketability.
Keywords: ActiveCampaign; BCBusiness; Digital Marketing; E-mail Marketing;
Magazine Publishing; Newsletter
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project report would not have come into fruition without the endless support I
received from BCBusiness editorial team—a special mention to Nick Rockel, Felicity
Stone, and Nathan Caddell—and from the rest of Canada Wide Media team.
I would also like to thank both of my supervisors, Leanne Johnson and Suzanne Norman,
for their undying patience and guidance towards the making of this report.
Thank you to my family back in Indonesia for their constant support, my managers at
Homesense for giving me flexibility with my shift in order for me to write this report, my
gym for providing the escape that I needed, my MPub 2017 cohort, and finally to all my
friends both in Vancouver and back home.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL ii
ABSTRACT iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF FIGURES vii
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND THE CURRENT PUBLISHING
LANDSCAPE 1
About Canada Wide Media and Its Publications 2
Assessing The Need for Change: BCBusiness Daily Newsletter 3
PART TWO: E-MAIL MARKETING 4
A Brief History of E-Mail Marketing 5
The Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Mail Marketing 8
Trends and Business Models of A Successful E-Mail Marketing 9
PART THREE: BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER 20
Overview 21
Readership 22
ActiveCampaign Data 23
PART FOUR: REDESIGN 31
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter 31
BCBusiness Event Newsletter 38
CONCLUSION 42
WORKS CITED 45
APPENDIX 1. BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER (MAY 2, 2018) 50
APPENDIX 2.1 TOTAL SUBSCRIBERS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS 51
APPENDIX 2.2 ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS 51
APPENDIX 2.3 NEW SUBSCRIBERS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS 51
APPENDIX 3.1 TOTAL OPEN RATE 52
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APPENDIX 3.2 TOTAL DID NOT OPEN RATE 52
APPENDIX 3.4 OPEN RATE A 53
APPENDIX 3.5 OPEN RATE B 54
APPENDIX 4 PLATFORM USED TO OPEN NEWSLETTERS 55
APPENDIX 5.1 OPEN TRENDS BASED ON THE DAY 55
APPENDIX 5.2 OPEN TRENDS BASED ON THE HOUR 55
APPENDIX 6 UNSUBSCRIBERS RATE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS 56
APPENDIX 7.1 TOTAL CLICK RATE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS 56
APPENDIX 7.2 TOTAL DID NOT CLICKS RATE THROUGHOUT
THE YEARS 56
APPENDIX 7.3 CLICK RATE 57
APPENDIX 8 TOTAL HITS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS 58
APPENDIX 9 BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER OLD VS NEW
DESIGN STATISTICS 59
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Open, Click, Bounce and Unsubscribe Rate Formula 18
Figure 2 First BCBusiness Daily Newsletter Published Using
ActiveCampaign (November 29, 2016) 33
Figure 3 BCBusiness Daily Newsletter Re-designed (First Prototypes
with Two Different Aesthetics) 35
Figure 4 BCBusiness Daily Newsletter Re-designed (Second Prototypes) 37
Figure 5 BCBusiness Daily Newsletter Re-designed (Third Prototype) 37
Figure 6 BCBusiness Event Newsletter Re-designed (First Prototype) 39
Figure 7 BCBusiness Event Newsletter Re-designed (Final Prototype) 39
Figure 8 Current BCBusiness Daily Newsletter (October 3, 2018) 41
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PART ONE:
INTRODUCTION AND THE CURRENT
PUBLISHING LANDSCAPE
In the age of the Internet, books and magazines are no longer just printed papers bound in
an orderly manner as we used to know them. The existence of websites, e-mail, and social
media has enriched content and strengthened reader engagement, and these tools have
become a necessity for every business, including magazine publishers. Of these online
tools, e-mail newsletters are especially effective for integrating multiple audience channels
and promoting reader engagement; because of this, they have become part of the backbone
of the publishing industry.
Throughout a four-month internship with BCBusiness magazine starting April 2018, I
noticed how the magazine’s parent company, Canada Wide Media (CWM) had been trying
to compete with the rapidly changing technology to stay relevant by offering all of its
publications online. At the time of the internship, BCBusiness used a website, multiple
social media channels, and a daily newsletter along with its print magazine to keep readers
engaged with all of their content.
During my time working with the BCBusiness editorial team, my main responsibility was
to produce and publish their daily newsletter. I observed how the BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter had been losing readership over the years. As part of the internship, I analyzed
how well the newsletter production went, how effective the newsletter upgrades were, and
then suggested solutions for the complications that arose. The data gathered were dated
between November 29, 2016, and June 16, 2018. This report seeks to provide analysis of
what worked and what did not work in relation to studies and findings on e-mail marketing,
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and then provide solutions that publishers could use to improve their newsletters and e-
mail marketing practices.
ABOUT CANADA WIDE MEDIA AND ITS PUBLICATIONS
Founded in 1974 by CEO Peter Legge, CWM started with TV Week, and over the years has
grown into an established independent magazine publisher in Western Canada. Its core
publications—BCBusiness, Award, BCLiving, Real Weddings, TV Week, Youthink PS, and
Wellness Matters—have built a strong presence in BC, especially in Vancouver. In June
2018, the company acquired Vancouver Magazine and Western Living Magazine, enriching
their portfolio even more, in both print and online.
CWM also publishes custom content, which is filled with special interest publications
(SIPs) in fields like lifestyle, health, tourism, and trade. Examples like Switch for BC
Hydro, Bark! and AnimalSense for BC SPCA, Salmon Steward for Pacific Salmon
Foundation, Women’s for BC Women’s Hospital and Health Center Foundation, Mineral
Exploration for the Association for Mineral Exploration, Promise for St. Paul’s
Foundation, Well Into The Future for Lions Gate Hospital Foundation, Vancouver
Foundation for Vancouver Foundation, Vancouver Official Visitor’s Guide, and many
more.
Founded in 1974 BCBusiness is one of CWM’s most prominent publications and BC’s only
business-specific magazine. BCBusiness publishes 10 issues a year, including special
issues such as BC’s Top 100 Companies, Entrepreneur of the Year, 30 Under 30, and Best
Cities for Work in BC. The goal of the publication is to provide its readers with relevant,
comprehensive, and provocative commentary on the issues, trends, and people shaping
business in BC (BCBusiness, 2018).
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ASSESSING THE NEED FOR CHANGE:
BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER
By the end of the period covered in this report, CWM had acquired the city magazine
Vancouver Magazine and the lifestyle magazine Western Living. This change had posed
both competition and inspiration to all CWM’s existing publications, especially
BCBusiness. Vancouver Magazine has been a competitor for BCBusiness because it also
covers some business and politics related content similar to that of BCBusiness. Not only
has Vancouver Magazine thrived in the public eye for its printed magazines, according to
Anicka Quin and Stacey McLachlan in a 2018 interview, but its newsletter has also gained
a lot of attention from their audience. In 2018, Vancouver Magazine’s newsletter
subscription number was at 10,000 with an average open rate of 25 percent. In contrast,
BCBusiness’s newsletter subscription number was just around 8,000 with an average open
rate of 16 percent.
When asked about Vancouver Magazine and Western Living’s newsletters, McLachlan
said that design consideration is one of the main reasons attributed to the newsletters’
success. “The newsletter design needs to be clear, concise and mobile friendly. VanMag
(Vancouver Magazine) is more about the content, that’s why the pictures on the newsletters
are smaller. Western Living’s content is more timely than VanMag so the newsletter has
big clickable pictures that would appeal more visually to the reader” (McLachlan, 2018).
Presented with these findings, BCBusiness’s editorial and sales teams understood the need
to implement some changes that would put their newsletter back into the race both
internally and externally. I was assigned to do a redesign of BCBusiness’s newsletter based
on e-mail marketing best practices and an analysis of the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter’s
back-end data provided on ActiveCampaign.
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PART TWO:
E-MAIL MARKETING
As technology development reaches unprecedented levels and communication flows faster
than ever before, organizations are presented with the challenge to constantly stay relevant
and engaging. E-mail is considered to be one of the most efficient and effective techniques
in marketing to generate leads and sales, with very high possibilities of links being opened
and clicked by the recipient (Aufreiter et al., 2014). According to a survey conducted in
2015, US marketing executives believe that e-mail alone drives the same amount of
revenue as social media, websites, and display ad efforts combined (eMarketer, 2015).
In the early 2000s, e-mail marketing quickly became the preferred method of contact for
businesses looking to cut expenses, connect with buyers, and increase profits (Fariborzi,
2012). This was possible because e-mail is considerably cheaper compared to paper mail.
Since its popularity rose, e-mail marketing has been the starting point for automated
customer relations with a focus on creating the customer journey—sum of experiences that
customers go through when interacting with a certain company or brand—and leading to
specific business goals.
Newsletters are used as a form of direct marketing—selling a product directly to the
public—using e-mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages
to an audience (Fariborzi, 2012). In a broader sense of e-mail marketing, every e-mail sent
to a potential or current customer would be considered e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing
is able to serve different purposes, depending on the desired goal(s) of the sender. Purposes
such as:
• Building and maintaining a relationship with previous and current customers,
• Acquiring new or potential customers,
• Increasing customer loyalty and brand awareness,
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• Serving as a tool to encourage customers to take specific actions, i.e. purchase a
product or visit a website, or
• Serving as an advertising platform, either internally or externally for a paid
advertiser.
Before Internet and e-mail, it wasn’t feasible for businesses to market their products or
brand around the world, but now they can. This puts media publishers all around the world
competing in the world of e-mail marketing. Some focus on making a simple text-based e-
mail with article links and headlines. Others include more personalized e-mails with
curated content and images. Publishing giants like the New York Times, The Washington
Post, and The Guardian now send more than 50 regular newsletters each by e-mail, with
their newsletter style being editorial-heavy (Jack, 2016). Other media companies like BBC
have decreased the variety of newsletters their readers can subscribe to and focus more on
the number of newsletters sent through consolidated e-mails, linking different themes and
programs that are more tailored to individuals’ interests (Jack, 2016). Quartz, BuzzFeed,
and other notable digital groups have also joined in the race, increasing their commitment
to sending newsletters alongside curating their web and social media content. Some start-
up media brands have launched exclusively on e-mail (usually with an accompanying
website), such as Ozy—targeting US millennials—and The Skimm, a conversational daily
briefing focused on younger women.
It’s hard to deny that e-mail is one of the most effective channels for reaching an audience,
despite the increase in social media marketing. In fact, e-mail marketing has become an
integral part of business transactions and is favoured by its users (Jack, 2016).
A BRIEF HISTORY OF E-MAIL MARKETING
Before the creation of e-mail, business-to-client marketing was done primarily by paper
mail and telephone. Marketers would send flyers, promotional catalogs, and postcards to
reach their intended customers and potential clients. They usually reached out to one person
at a time, which proved to be inefficient and expensive.
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All of that changed when Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer, created a system to send
messages between computers in 1971. A year later, Larry Roberts developed the first e-
mail management system that allowed users to select, forward, and respond to messages
(Emailoversight, 2018). The first unsolicited mass advertising e-mail was sent out in 1978;
today, we know this as spam (Osman, 2016). In 1982, the phrase “electronic mail message”
was shortened to “e-mail” (Osman, 2016). In 1989, an e-mail software called Lotus Notes
was released, which was a big hit, selling 35,000 copies in just a year (Emailoversight,
2018). The first AOL voice messages were also recorded in that year, telling the receiver,
“You’ve got mail!” (Osman, 2016). Then in 1996, Microsoft leapt in and released Internet
Mail and News 1.0 as a feature of their third-generation Internet Explorer. This was later
renamed Outlook and became one of the most widely used e-mail software programs as we
know it today (Emailoversight, 2018).
When the Internet became mainstream in the early 1990s, access to e-mail was still limited.
E-mail was primarily used by students who gained access from their university, and
employees in certain fields began to use e-mail as a corporate tool (GeekChicago, 2017).
Users at home generally got access to e-mail through their Internet service provider (ISP)
such as AOL or Prodigy. However, access to these accounts were limited, as users could
only log in to their e-mail accounts when using the computer connected to their ISP
(GeekChicago, 2017).
In 1996, Hotmail (once known as HoTMaiL, in reference to HTML) created the first free,
web-based mail service (or webmail), which was accessible to everyone from anywhere
(GeekChicago, 2017). The service could be used over an Internet browser, which meant
that anyone could send and receive e-mails from any computer as long as they had an
Internet browser and connection to the Internet. Later that year, as millions of users began
adopting webmail, brands began to see the value of using it as a direct marketing tool by
sending promotions, advertisements, deals, and news events directly to their customer. This
was considered the birth of e-mail marketing (GeekChicago, 2017).
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As more and more e-mails were sent, users began to recognize unsolicited e-mails, which
led to the creation of the Data Protection Act in 1998 in the US (Emailoversight, 2018).
This act was created to ensure that all e-mail marketing included a possibility to opt-out of
receiving the e-mails. In 2003, the Can Spam Law was introduced in the US and Canada,
making it the first regulation for commercial e-mails that changed the shape of e-mail
marketing in both countries (Emailoversight, 2018). The Can Spam Law set strict
regulations on commercial e-mails sent, with parameters to guide e-mail marketing efforts
and strict penalties for violators. Can Spam also made it illegal to include misleading
subject lines, requiring marketers to label their ads and provide identifying information of
the company, such as postal address or telephone number (GeekChicago, 2017).
In 2014, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) was introduced to regulate e-mail
marketing practices in Canada (Emailoversight, 2018). Fast forward to 2019—when spam
e-mails make up 45 percent of all e-mails and 14.5 billion spam messages are sent globally
per day—these regulations have become more relevant and highly needed (SpamLaws,
2018).
Over the course of the 2000s, the use of mobile devices was booming, making a user shift
from desktops and laptops to mobile devices, which are used to call, text, and browse the
Internet (Osman, 2016). Today, mobile devices—ranging from smartphones, tablets, and
smart watches—have become the primary devices for people to check and send e-mails,
with 59 percent of e-mails opened on mobile, compared to only 15 percent on desktop and
28 percent in a webmail client (Adestra, 2018). At the same time, advancement in mobile
technology created a new trend for e-mail marketing. A plain, text-based e-mail had turned
into something more advanced and eye-catching with high-quality pictures, videos, and
even social media posts embedded along with well-written, curated text to help promote
brands better.
Over time, e-mail marketing evolved into one of the most widely used marketing strategies
(Adestra, 2018). In 2019, e-mail marketing is still extremely effective, but the fact remains
that newsletters will continue to face challenges along the way, including monetization,
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spam, and sustainability. Questions over its sustainability, variety, investment, and the
difficulty to remain visible and competitive are likely to appear when the rivalry in e-mail
marketing continues to increase. Due to these challenges, there is a need for the marketer
and publisher to work together in creating valuable content with emphasis on curation,
creativity, and consistency, especially in this digital era where attention spans are
diminishing .
THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF E-MAIL MARKETING
E-mail marketing has clearly evolved into a popular modern marketing tool, so it is
important to note the reasons why it is so effective, and the advantages it has over other
marketing platforms. Advantages include:
• Better return on investment (ROI). According to the Direct Marketing
Association, every dollar invested in e-mail marketing yields 40 times the return
from the intitial investment. This proves that e-mail marketing yields one of the
highest returns compared to other marketing strategies.
• Higher personalization. Marketers can customize the content of e-mails to their
specific targeted audience by providing content and ads that are consistent with
their customer profiles and addressing e-mails personally.
• Easy to produce. Creating content for e-mail is easier than producing a live
campaign over television or other traditional advertising methods. There are
countless e-mail marketing tools available today to help produce content and make
design easier. Most of these tools are also easy to understand and time-efficient.
• Measurability. With the use of e-mail marketing platforms such as
ActiveCampaign and MailChimp, marketers can easily gather back-end data to find
the numbers for e-mails sent, e-mails opened or not opened, subscriptions, and link
clicks or other engagement.
• Fast, automatic, and efficient. Marketers can schedule the e-mails they are about
to send through the autoresponder feature on their e-mail marketing tools.
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However, some disadvantages have been encountered over the years, which have made
other alternatives like social media marketing and direct marketing campaigns look more
appealing. Disadvantages include:
• Junk-mail filters. As many e-mail providers and ISPs are using junk-mail filters,
there is a risk that an e-mail will not get to the subscribers’ inboxes.
• Viruses and bots. Some viruses and bots are developed to infiltrate an e-mail,
which could be a risk. This will lead to the subscribers losing the trust of the sender
(Fariborzi, 2012). Some people are also hesitant to sign-up to newsletters because
they worry about receiving viruses on their computer.
• Unopened e-mails. An average office worker receives 121 e-mails per day, both
solicited and unsolicited (Smith, 2018). This means that marketers are constantly
fighting for subscribers’ attention to actually open and read their e-mails.
• Pricey. Although e-mail marketing is very inexpensive to start with, for it to
become more engaging and reliable, it requires more money. For example, the costs
related to designing better newsletters and developing high-resolution images.
• Risk of unsubscribing. It is hard to keep subscribers engaged with the brand over
long periods of time.
TRENDS AND BUSINESS MODELS OF SUCCESSFUL
E-MAIL MARKETING
Advances in technology caused the use of newsletters (implementation of marketing
strategies through e-mails) to reach its peak in 2019. (Adestra, 2018). The ever-growing
number of users and the many advantages of e-mail marketing have driven many brands
and companies to implement this strategy. From research on the best practices of e-mail
marketing, I have compiled 13 steps needed when creating a successful e-mail marketing
campaign, which can be used to create a new campaign or to improve existing campaigns.
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STEP ONE: Define the Newsletter’s Goal
Determine how the newsletter fits into the overall content and marketing strategy by
deciding on a measurable goal the newsletter is meant to achieve. Is the newsletter
supposed to help generate traffic to the website? Or to help sell ads and acquire more
contacts? A goal should be broader than just increasing the newsletter’s open rate and click
rate, and it should be in line with the overall business strategy and the marketing and sales
goals. Content decisions will be determined by the goal of the newsletter as well as the
overall business strategy, so it is important to be specific with goals. For instance, when
asked about the goals of Vancouver Magazine and Western Living Magazine newsletters,
executive editor McLachlan said that their newsletters are generally used to drive more
traffic to their websites (McLachlan, 2018).
STEP TWO: Gather Data and Content
In order to send the most relevant newsletter, it is important to include content that
subscribers want. Using or developing a good database on who the business’s audiences
are will help determine what kind of content will fit their customer profiles and best serve
the overall goals of the newsletter. Once the audience profiles are gathered and understood,
the act of finding content for them will follow:
The best e-mail newsletters are filled with about 90 percent educational content that is relevant to your target audience. For example, include articles on general topics that your target customer would likely be interested in, as well as useful information on how to get the most out of your products. So, that leaves you with about 10 percent of space to devote solely to promoting your business (Fulcrum, 2016).
Content can be original or gathered. Gathered content can be acquired actively or
passively—actively means going on the hunt for content that will solve a specific goal, and
passively means that content is randomly found when browsing for other content—(Mineo,
2014).
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STEP THREE: Scheduling
It is important to plan customer communications, including newsletters, carefully through
scheduling. This way, you can map who the newsletter is going to be sent to and when it
will be sent. It is also important to send the newsletters on a consistent schedule. For
instance, weekly newsletters should be sent to the subscribers on the same day and at the
same time each week (Parrish, 2017). This way, subscribers can anticipate the newsletter
and this will provide easier data analysis later on by benchmarking the same data metrics
throughout.
There are four things to consider when deciding on the best time to send a newsletter
according to Parrish:
• Workflow. Whoever is handling the production and scheduling of the newsletter
should decide on a routine that will fit into their workflow. It is extremely important
that a newsletter be produced at a time that can be replicated each week.
Consistency is key. Preparing a newsletter can be time-consuming, but with the
perfectly timed routine, it will leave enough time to create the newsletter and
enough time to proofread for errors (Parrish, 2017).
• Audience. A reader’s profile plays a big role in this decision-making.
Understanding what the subscriber is doing at a certain time and at a certain place
will help determine what time a newsletter should be sent. For example, if the
subscribers of a business newsletter are mostly bankers, then 9AM will be the best
time to send the newsletters. That way, they can open their newsletter while getting
a morning coffee and checking their other e-mails (Parrish, 2017).
• Competition. Check when your competitors’ newsletters are being sent, and send
yours at a time that does not overlap with theirs. This will help your newsletter
stands out in the subscriber’s inbox (Parrish, 2017).
• Goal. Align the scheduling with what the goal of the newsletter is. For example, if
the newsletter content is a long analysis about an issue, then it may be best to send
them during the weekend or Sunday morning, not Monday morning when people
usually want a shorter, more to-the-point reading (Parrish, 2017).
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STEP FOUR: Choose The Right Tools
In order to compile and send a newsletter, businesses used to have to send them one by one
by copying and pasting e-mail addresses from a mailing list they compiled in Excel. This
is a time-consuming and ineffective strategy because it does not allow newsletters to look
professional, there are no tools to measure important stats like open rate and click-rate, and
it increases the likelihood of triggering spam filters (Singleton, 2018). With many
dedicated newsletter tools like MailChimp, Getresponse, and ActiveCampaign, businesses
can now easily import their database, create better templates, curate their mailing list,
enable automation and personalization, and receive stats.
STEP FIVE: Design A Template
Since 51 percent of recipients unsubscribe to newsletters that are poorly designed, it is
important to create an attractive newsletter design (Litmus, 2017). Furthermore, when a
subscriber opens a newsletter, it is important to keep them engaged and make them take
action, and design plays a crucial role in that. Thus, there are eight guidelines on how to
boost a newsletter design:
• Choose the right template. A newsletter template should not exceed 600px in
width and should have only a single column. A template should also be easily edited
to fit the content and branding of the company or publication. Most newsletter tools
allow for proper sizing and editing features to make this easy (Hall, 2017).
• Stick to the branding. A newsletter is a part of a company’s branding, so it should
use the same logo, colour theme, and avatar used across other channels such as the
company’s website and social media. Being consistent with the template is key.
This will help subscribers recognize and familiarize themselves with the brand,
which then can lead to loyalty and higher engagement.
• Use the right fonts. Typography plays a great role in how a newsletter is perceived.
The first thing to consider is using web safe fonts that are at least 16 pixels in size
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(Hall, 2017). Users will have different e-mail clients and web browsers, so using
web safe fonts will prevent cluttered and uncoordinated fonts that some browsers
or providers might not recognize. Second, less is more. Using too many different
fonts may distract the reader. Try playing with font size (especially for headlines)
and weight, and opt for readability. It is also important to stick to the branding and
make all the fonts consistent throughout.
• Pay attention to images. High resolution and attractive images are necessary to
keep the attention of the subscribers focused on the most important content. A
research study shows that two-thirds of subscribers prefer e-mails that are mostly
images. (Litmus, 2017). On the other hand, 43 percent of people disable images and
some e-mail clients do not display background images (Jordan, 2014). When asked
about newsletter design considerations for Vancouver Magazine and Western
Living, McLachlan said, “We try to mix it up, making it clear, concise, and mobile
friendly. VanMag (Vancouver Magazine) is more about the content, which is why
the pictures are smaller. Western Living has big flashy pictures that are clickable
because its content is timelier than VanMag’s” (McLachlan, 2018). Therefore, it is
important to ensure whether an image is necessary, and if so, make sure to use
compressed images so they will load quickly. There should also be alternative text
for images so when a subscriber opens the newsletter, they will see a preview pane
with text to let them know what they are not seeing unless they download the
images.
• Choose the right colour. It is important for brand recognition to use brand colours,
but using the right accent or alternative colours can influence purchases by
associating their emotions with particular colours. For instance, using the colours
green and red for product offers during the Christmas season.
• Make it scannable. It is important to structure a newsletter that best fits what a
brand wants a subscriber to do after reading their newsletter. Make it clear which
one is the most important piece. And since images draw attention the most, place
them strategically in a way that will best accommodate the content. Use
subheadings and bullet points to keep people reading and lead them to the call-to-
action.
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• Accessibility. It is a good practice to be mindful of subscribers who have visual
and hearing impairments and other disabilities. Consider using accessible fonts at
a larger size, avoiding walls of text, using alternative text for all images, and clear
formatting to help people with disabilities to access all the information presented
in the newsletter.
• Mobile friendly. Approximately 75 percent of people delete e-mails that are not
responsive to their mobile devices (Litmus, 2017). This means that all seven criteria
above also play a great role in making a newsletter design best optimized for mobile
devices. In addition to making clicking easier, a larger call-to-action buttons and
hyperlinks are preferred.
STEP SIX: Create Body Content That People Want to Read
The average user dedicates only 51 seconds to read a newsletter, so great content is
necessary to grab the reader’s attention immediately and make them take action. A
newsletter should not be a sales channel, but rather it should be a medium to inform and
build loyalty with subscribers (Walker, 2017). A newsletter should be 90 percent
informative and beneficial to whoever is reading it, and only 10 percent promotional.
(Fulcrum, 2016). In doing so, there are five criteria for a good newsletter (Walker, 2017):
• Keep it short and simple. Avoid full-length, overly analyzed articles that may
overwhelm the subscribers. Lead with catchy headlines and a brief informative
description.
• Curate content. Share high quality content that best fits the subscribers’ interests.
• Offer value. Make it clear what benefits a subscriber can get from subscribing to
the newsletter.
• Personalized content. Let the writers’ personalities shine. Make it look like a
personal letter. Better yet, address the subscribers by their names, which is possible
through the use of newsletter tools like ActiveCampaign and MailChimp. Cater to
their preferences and interests by introducing custom content catered to customer
profiles.
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• Be exclusive, niche-focused, and honest. Let the newsletter speak for the brand
and what it stands for. Differentiate the newsletter from dozens of others by putting
the brand identity front and center.
Once good content is delivered, there is still more work to do to keep the subscribers
hooked. This means that a brand needs to offer something extra to keep the readers
engaged.
STEP SEVEN: Pick The Best Subject Lines
When a subscriber receives an e-mail in their inbox, the first things they see are the sender’s
name, the subject line, and the preheader. Those three things are the factors that drive them
to immediately open, ignore, or delete your newsletter. Forty-seven percent of recipients
open an e-mail based on its subject line, so it is important to create quality, engaging subject
lines for every newsletter or e-mail you send (Meher, 2012). Here are tips on how to write
a subject line that stands out (Meher, 2012):
• Keep it short. Use between six to 10 words, or between 25-30 characters,
especially for mobile device optimization.
• Make it personal. Address your subscribers by their first names in the subject line
and add a headline of the content.
• Create a sense of urgency or scarcity. For example, adding words like “Only
today!” or “You have only two days to join!”
• Be reliable. A subject line should still represent what the content of the e-mail is.
A misleading subject line could violate the Can Spam Law.
• Use a familiar and authentic tone. The style of writing should reflect the brand’s
voice.
• Add numbers or words like “TOP 10,” “Most Likely To.” And many more.
Avoid using the word “newsletter” and filler words like “hello.”
• Do A/B Testing. Send several e-mails with different subject lines, and then check
your analytics. This will help to see which subject line work better and gets opened
more often.
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The newsletter’s e-mail preheader is another way to encourage recipient to open a
newsletter. A preheader is the first line—75 to 100 characters in length—in the newsletter
that appears after the e-mail subject line in recipients’ inboxes (Meher, 2012). By making
it inviting and informative, the preheader will encourage recipients to open the newsletter
to find out more.
STEP EIGHT: Allow People to Subscribe and Share
All e-mail marketing tools make it easy to add a subscribe form for the mailing list to a
website and social media profiles by providing an embed code that links to a specific list
of e-mail addresses. Using “Subscribe now!” pop-ups on a website can also maximize the
number of subscribers. Furthermore, adding social media buttons on the newsletter is a
great way to enable subscribers to share your content on their social media profiles
(Fulcrum Tech, 2016).
STEP NINE: Use Only One Call-To-Action (CTA)
In the end, a newsletter’s success is determined by views and clicks, which means CTA is
a critical part in keeping subscribers engaged. There are six types of CTA: newsletter
subscription, in-line content upgrades, purchase, learn more, social sharing, and contact
form submissions (Gonzalo, 2017). Ideally, there should only be one CTA in each
newsletter so the CTAs do not compete against each other—having only one CTA will
likely increase conversion rates if a recipient only has one action to perform. Furthermore,
the CTA should be one of the first things readers see, so it is recommended to position it
at the top of the newsletter (Gonzalo, 2017). Should it be decided that there is more than
one CTA, make sure that they are clearly separated. A CTA needs to be clear and visible,
authoritative and actionable, direct and immediate, and must always be contextualized with
the content.
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STEP TEN: Use Autoresponders and Marketing Automation
An autoresponder—available with any e-mail marketing tool—helps to schedule e-mails
at specific times in a reader’s timeline with the company. Autoresponders work by
providing automated e-mails that can be programmed in advance, both the content and
frequency, and are sent every time someone signs up to a mailing list—other options are
also available for certain businesses, such as sending a reminder if a customer has items in
a shopping cart they have not purchased yet or that the item they wanted is on sale.
Furthermore, some of the major e-mail marketing tools have provided a marketing
automation function that allows marketers to send follow-up e-mails called trigger e-mails,
which usually encourage subscribers to either purchase a product, open a particular e-mail,
click a particular link, visit a particular web page, and more (Singleton, 2018).
STEP ELEVEN: Make Sure The Newsletter is Legally Compliant
Under the Can Spam Law and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), a newsletter must
provide an easy, one-click option for a subscriber to unsubscribe (Mineo, 2014). This
option is normally located on the newsletter’s footer, along with a mailing address that
provides a means to communicate with the newsletter’s senders. This is to make sure that
a newsletter is reputable and reliable.
STEP TWELVE: Test Using Different Web Browsers and E-mail Clients
After following all the 11 steps above, make sure the newsletter appears as it should in
every web browser and e-mail client. Not all browsers and e-mail clients use the same
codes; therefore, it is important that the newsletters are tested to ensure the fonts, images,
and sizing are perfect in each web browser and e-mail client (Fulcrum Tech, 2016).
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STEP THIRTEEN: Measure, Analyze, and Optimize
After sending out the newsletters with different subject lines as part of the A/B testing in
Step Seven: Pick The Best Subject Lines, check to see how well it performed in relation to
the goals set (Mineo, 2014). Most e-mail marketing tools provide performance stats for
each newsletter delivered. Using those data points, it is important to determine what works
best for your target audience. Ask questions like: Are the subject lines working? Are people
clicking the CTAs? Does the design need improvement? Are the newsletters being sent out
too often? Continuous monitoring and testing are needed to best maximize the ROI from
the newsletter. Use indicators such as (see figure 1 for formulas):
• Open Rates to determine what type of subject lines and content drove people to
open the newsletters.
• Click-through Rates to determine what sort of links are being clicked by the
readers.
• Unsubscribe Rates to determine what kind of content readers dislike.
Figure 1 Open, Click, Bounce and Unsubscribe Rate Formula
Source: www.mailchimp.com, E-mail Marketing Benchmark
Finally, in the competitive marketing landscape nowadays, it is imperative for e-mail
marketers and businesses to know and understand the advantages and disadvantages of
using e-mail marketing as part of their marketing channels. Furthermore, it is advised to
incorporate the 13 steps above in order to create a successful e-mail marketing campaign
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that can improve readership and engagement. In the following chapter, I will analyze the
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter’s readership and engagement and how the 13 steps could
help improve the newsletter’s effectiveness.
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PART THREE:
BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER
BCBusiness started using ActiveCampaign for their newsletter on November 29, 2016; at
this time, the newsletter also went through a redesign to accommodate more ad space and
to give their subscribers a fresh look. Since this time, the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter has
experienced many ups and downs, including a decrease in the subscriber rate and an
increase in the open rate. This section discusses the data metrics of an e-mail newsletter:
what they mean, how they affect the success of a newsletter, and why it is important for
BCBusiness to understand these metrics to better assess how well their newsletter performs
in accordance to best practices (Part Two: E-mail Marketing).
At the time the analysis was conducted, the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter (see Appendix 1
for original design) was published five times a week from Monday to Friday using
ActiveCampaign. The BCBusiness Daily Newsletter had two feature stories, one piece of
advertorial—advertisement in the form of editorial content—, two shared stories from
other sources, an inspirational quote, an event listing for general business events, and ads.
All the materials in the newsletter are available on their website, bcbusiness.ca, and the
printed magazine. The only thing exclusively available to newsletter subscribers were two
repository stories called “Daily Biz,” which was a summary of stories published in other
news channels such as The Guardian, The New York Times, CBC News, and many more.
The BCBusiness Daily Newsletter also had an inspirational quote sourced from CWM CEO
Peter Legge’s book, My Favorite Quotations—Collected words of inspiration and hope.
A study was conducted to see how the newsletter was performing in relation to its goals,
which were to drive more traffic to the website and to accommodate ads. In order to see
how effective the BCBusiness Daily Newsletters were, the newsletter’s data metrics such
as subscriber rate, unsubscribe rate, open rate, open trends, click rate, platform used to open
newsletters, and total hits are going to be analyzed and compared in accordance to the 13
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steps of a successful newsletter (Part Two: E-mail Marketing). The findings are detailed
below.
OVERVIEW
The BCBusiness sales and marketing teams were interviewed to gather more information
on the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter. Information gathered included the newsletter’s
production, marketing funnels, audience, channels, purpose, and goals. In order to get a
better look at the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter, I came up with five questions based on the
best practices (Part Two: E-mail Marketing) that are imperative when making
improvements on a newsletter. The five questions are:
1. Who handles the newsletter?
2. What is the marketing funnel for the newsletter?
3. Who is the target audience?
4. If you are able to segregate the audience both for the web and print, would you?
5. What are the purpose and goals of the newsletter?
From the information gathered, the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter is produced by the sales
and editorial teams. The editorial team is responsible for curating the content as well as
producing and publishing the newsletter, and the sales team is responsible for selling the
ad spaces. Chris Hinton—Marketing Lead, BCBusiness—is responsible for bridging both
teams, as well as handling the technical and back-end of the ActiveCampaign. Moreover,
he is also responsible for scheduling the advertorial content and ads to meet the
advertisers’ needs.
BCBusiness uses their newsletter as one of their marketing channels, in addition to social
media like Twitter and Facebook, to drive people to their website. Both Hinton and Michael
McCullough—Director of Editorial, BCBusiness—agreed that the target audience for the
newsletter is mainly the visitor of the website, but is not limited to the readers and
subscribers of the print magazine. In terms of segmenting the audience between the web
and print publications, Hinton answered, “It is ideal, but that will be hard. Mainly, [they’re]
only focusing on gathering all the audience towards the website” (Hinton, 2018).
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According to Brianne Harper—Sales Manager, BCBusiness—the purpose and goal of the
newsletter is “For ads and content click-through. We would definitely want the open rate
to go higher as well. Generally speaking, we want to make the advertisers happy” (Harper,
2018).
Hinton also said that the display ads run five days minimum, from Monday to Friday.
Advertorial, which is a custom article which caters specifically to a brand or a product, will
appear at least once in the newsletter and will exist permanently on the website. Advertorial
will not automatically get shared on BCBusiness’s Facebook and Twitter, but advertisers
can pay for it to be shared. Advertisers can also pay to get their event listed on the event
list in the newsletter. According to McCullough, the content of the newsletter expands to
accommodate the ad count (McCullough, 2018).
“Daily Biz” is a summary of news and headlines, which exists for personalization—
something readers can only get on the newsletter. It is also a part of the offer to the
advertisers. However, the “Daily Biz” items do not generate that much traffic (less than 30
hits per article compared to the average of over 200 hits per article for other content).
The BCBusiness Daily Newsletter is essentially a less-targeted medium to drive traffic to
the website, where they would present visitors with different goals. “For example, there’s
a pop-up welcome banner when you first visit the website. It serves a different purpose
than the pop-up exit intent (a pop-up that appears on the user’s screen when he or she
attempts to leave the site)” (Hinton, 2018).
READERSHIP
As of June 18, 2018, the open rate of BCBusiness’s Daily Newsletter had dropped by
almost 50 percent (from 33 percent to 17 percent) since they first started using
ActiveCampaign on November 29, 2016. In this same timeframe, their click rate had also
dropped from six percent to three percent. Their active subscribers rate, which went up to
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about 4,200 in mid 2017, had dropped to 3,700 by 2018. In order to determine what had
happened—what works and what does not work—this section attempts to examine and
possibly address the following questions:
• Why do the open, click-through, and subscriber rates fall over the years?
• What changes to the newsletter could help boost the open, click-through, and
subscriber rates?
Subscriber data is an important metric for newsletters. In order to answer the two questions
above, an examination was conducted to provide an in-depth analysis of subscriber data
throughout the years since BCBusiness started using ActiveCampaign as their newsletter
tool. Subscriber data was extracted from the back-end of the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter,
which is provided by ActiveCampaign. Data such as total subscribers, open rate, platform
used to open newsletters, open trends, unsubscribe rate, click rate, and total hits are
considered to be imperative metrics to measure the success of a newsletter. The scope of
the data was set from November 29, 2016, to June 18, 2018, which totaled 566 days. Data
were taken on a monthly basis with an average cut-off date of the 30th of each month. The
results are analyzed in the following sections.
ACTIVECAMPAIGN DATA
SUBSCRIBERS
The subscriber number shows how many people are subscribing or giving permission to
receive communications through e-mail. On ActiveCampaign, BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter has three groups of subscriber data of BCBusiness Daily Newsletter, which are:
TOTAL SUBSCRIBERS
Total subscribers show how many people subscribe to the BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter. The more subscribers a newsletter has, the greater outreach their
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marketing strategy can have. From November 29, 2016, to June 18, 2018, the
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter had a total subscriber growth of 80 percent (from
3,905 to 7,044 subscribers). This translated to an average of six new subscribers
per day during November 29, 2016 to June 18, 2018. On December 30, 2016, the
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter acquired the most subscribers, with an 8.6 percent
increase (see Appendix 2.1). However, the first six months in 2018 had the lowest
increase compared to the year before. The low increase of total subscribers could
be due to the increase in the number of people unsubscribing, especially in the
beginning of 2017 (see Appendix 6).
ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS
Active subscribers are subscribers who actively open the BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter when they receive it, as opposed to people who subscribe without
opening the newsletter, which is only listed in the total subscribers. Active
subscribers are considered to be the subscribers BCBusiness has successfully
reached, as they constantly stay in the loop for what the publication has to offer.
Active subscribers also indicates whether or not BCBusiness Daily Newsletter
successfully reached its audience.
As of June 18, 2018, the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter had a 4.81 percent active
subscriber growth (from 3,556 to 3,727 active subscribers) since the start of the
newsletter publication using ActiveCampaign, which is 53 percent of the total
subscribers. On January 30, 2017, the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter had their
highest number of active subscribers with a 7.81 percent increase overall (see
Appendix 2.2). However, it can be seen on Appendix 2.2 that half of the time, the
number of active subscribers was decreasing, with May 30, 2017 being the highest
decrease at 2.52 percent. The decrease of active subscribers indicates that more
subscribers of BCBusiness Daily Newsletter are not opening their e-mails, and
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BCBusiness needs to review why some subscribers are no longer opening their e-
mails.
NEW SUBSCRIBERS
New subscribers show how many people recently subscribed to BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter. The more new subscribers a newsletter has, the more it says that the
newsletter is thriving. In the period of November 29, 2016 to June 18, 2018, the
newsletter had gathered 3,141 new subscribers with an average increase of six
subscribers per day. On November 29, 2016, 130 people subscribed, resulting in
the highest per-day acquirement of new subscribers at 4.14 percent (see Appendix
2.3). However, a lower number of new subscribers was presented within the first
half of 2018. It raises two questions: Why is the new subscribers number lower?
And what can be done to improve it?
The three groups of subscriber data above are important to determine whether or not the
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter has the ability to reach new audiences and to increase
subscriber engagement by converting inactive subscribers to being active subscribers. As
mentioned in Step Eight: Allow People to Subscribe and Share [Part Two: E-mail
Marketing], it is important for a business to provide easy access for their customers to
subscribe to their mailing list. This could be achieved by adding a subscribe form to their
website or by sharing a link to subscribe on social media channels. Another thing is to
provide more quality content, as mentioned in Step Six: Create Body Content That People
Want to Read [Part Two: E-mail Marketing], which can help improve the loyalty of
existing subscribers.
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UNSUBSCRIBERS
The unsubscribe rate, as opposed to subscriber data, shows how many subscribers had
opted to stop receiving communications through e-mails from a certain business or
company. The unsubscribe rate can be analyzed to indicate how or why a newsletter is
losing its audience, and gain insight into how the newsletter can be improved. By June
2018, BCBusiness’s Daily Newsletter had 1,964 people unsubscribe since November 29,
2016, averaging up to three people a day. Furthermore, most increases happened during
the beginning of 2017 (see Appendix 6). As mentioned in Step Thirteen: Measure, Analyze,
and Optimize [Part Two: E-mail Marketing], it is important to determine what articles were
published and what kind of marketing strategies were used on the days with the highest
unsubscribe rates. This will help in producing articles that subscribers like in the future and
knowing what kind of marketing strategies will work to reach the audience.
OPEN RATE
Open rate is a measure that indicates the percentage of opened newsletters sent to the
subscribers. Open rate shows how well a newsletter can catch a subscriber’s attention,
whether it’s from an inviting subject line or effective scheduling for sending newsletters.
The open rate is also used to determine when a subscriber converts from an inactive
subscriber to an active subscriber. On Monday, January 30, 2017, the BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter had the highest open rate, with a total of 35.44 percent of the newsletters were
opened (see Appendix 3.1). Throughout 2018, the open rate had an average of 1,400
compared to 1,700 in 2017.
A lower open rate may indicate that subscribers were losing interest and the market was
getting more competitive. The lowest open rate occurred on Thursday March 30, 2017, as
97.04 percent of the newsletters were left unopened (see Appendix 3.2). The average
number of unopened newsletters within the period of 2017 and 2018 varied (see Appendix
3.3 and 3.4). After evaluating these data, BCBusiness decided that they need to figure out
how to get their subscribers to convert from inactive to active subscribers. Increasing the
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open rate could potentially be achieved by using better subject lines and offering more
personalization that could drive subscribers to open their newsletter (Part Two: E-mail
Marketing). It is also important to do A/B testing after sending out newsletters with
different subject lines, as part of Step Seven: Pick The Best Subject Lines [Part Two: E-
mail Marketing], to see how well they are performing compared to the goals set as
mentioned in Step Thirteen: Measure, Analyze, and Optimize [Part Two: E-mail
Marketing].
OPEN TRENDS
Open trends is a measure that indicates when newsletters are opened by subscribers. This
data can show the specific tendencies of subscribers to open their newsletters on certain
days of the week and at certain times shown by the highest open rate of each day and each
time. As mentioned in Step Three: Scheduling [Part Two: E-mail Marketing], it is
important to map who the newsletter is going to be sent to, when it will be sent, and what
kind of content will be sent. The open trends data can help the BCBusiness editorial team
to better schedule their headlines and feature stories on the day and hour with the highest
open rate, thus increasing traffic to the website.
By day, BCBusiness Daily Newsletter’s subscribers tend to open their newsletters the most
often on Thursdays with an open rate of 61.86 percent, followed by Fridays with an open
rate of 60.54 percent (see Appendix 5.1). These findings are backed up with the data
gathered from the back-end of the BCBusiness website, which shows that one weekly
article published every Friday called Big Fat Deal is by far the readers’ favorite. Big Fat
Deal by Fiona Morrow is a short, image-heavy article featuring extravagant real estate on
sale around BC. This article could be the main reason why subscribers were more eager to
open their newsletter on the day it was published. Furthermore, by knowing which day a
newsletter has the most open rate could also help BCBusiness’s marketing strategy, such
as publishing an event promotion on the day with the most traffic.
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By hour, BCBusiness Daily Newsletter’s subscribers tend to open their newsletter more at
noon, with a total of 40.36 percent, followed by 2 PM with a total of 37.85 percent (see
Appendix 5.2). On the other hand, only 27.22 percent of subscribers opened their
newsletter at 7 AM, which is the time set for the newsletter to be sent every weekday. These
findings could also help better profile the audience, who mostly open their newsletter
during their lunch break. By knowing what time subscribers mostly open their newsletter
could help BCBusiness decide what time their newsletter should be sent out every day so
the newsletter will not get buried in the subscribers’ inboxes along with other e-mails.
CLICK RATE
Click rate indicates how many links or articles were clicked on in the newsletter, which
may also show how many articles were read by subscribers. Click rate is critical to
understanding what kind of content the subscribers are reading. The higher the click rate,
the more traffic a newsletter generates to the website where an article is located. Click rate
is also a good metric to offer advertisers, as a higher click rate overall means that
subscribers are more likely to click on their ads in the newsletter.
Furthermore, a higher open rate could lead to a higher click rate, although these rates are
not always parallel. As an example, a high open rate, which indicates a lot of subscribers
open their newsletters, could have a low click rate because not a lot of subscribers click the
articles on the newsletter.
On Friday, September 29, 2017, for example, the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter had the
highest click rate with a total of 16.28 percent articles were clicked (see Appendix 7.1).
The click rate was higher throughout 2017 compared to 2018. On the other hand, 94.64
percent of subscribers did not click a link on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 (see Appendix 7.2).
The average number of unopened e-mails within the period of 2017 and 2018 varied (see
Appendix 7.3). This may indicate that an improvement is needed to boost the click rate, as
the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter acts as one of the main channels to drive people to the
BCBusiness website. As mentioned in Step Six: Create a Body Content That People Want
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to Read and Step Thirteen: Measure, Analyze, and Optimize [Part Two: E-mail Marketing],
it is important to know what kind of articles subscribers like to read, as this should affect
editorial decisions for curation and creation of content that will increase click rates. As
well, more inviting story captions may encourage people to click on the content.
PLATFORM USED TO OPEN NEWSLETTERS
The platform used to open newsletters gives data on what operating system (Apple iOS or
Android for example) and what software (Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo! Mail for example)
subscribers use to open the newsletter. Knowing how a subscriber opens their newsletter is
important for user interface optimization and design. As for BCBusiness Daily Newsletter,
unknown source ranked the highest, with a total of 65.69 percent, followed by Google’s e-
mail provider, Gmail, with a total of 18.96 percent (see Appendix 4). Therefore, since most
BCBusiness’s Daily Newsletter subscribers use unknown tools to open their e-mails,
BCBusiness should design a user-friendly newsletter that will operate well on all platforms.
As mentioned in Step Twelve: Test Using Different Web Browsers and E-mail Clients
[Part Two: E-mail Marketing], not all browsers and e-mail clients use the same codes,
which means the outcome of the fonts, images, and sizing might be different.
TOTAL HITS
Total hits indicate from which country a newsletter’s audience is clicking the articles in the
newsletter. This also indicates a newsletter’s readership by determining which country has
the biggest audience, thus articles can be catered more specific to the country. On
Wednesday, November 29, 2016, BCBusiness’s Daily Newsletter had the highest hits, with
a total of 1,026 hits in Canada (see Appendix 8). The total number of hits was higher
throughout 2017 compared to 2018, which indicates that something can be done to increase
the rate. As mentioned in Step Eight: Allow People to Subscribe and Share [Part Two: E-
mail Marketing], visible social media buttons on the newsletter could be the key to enabling
subscribers to share the content to their social media profile.
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Overall, based on the analysis in this chapter and the theories (Part Two: E-mail
Marketing), an assessment of BCBusiness Daily Newsletter was made. This assessment
was done to best determine the design improvements needed to increase all the rates that
determine a successful newsletter—subscriber rate, click rate, open rate, and total hits—
and to decrease the unsubscribe rate. Furthermore, based on the analysis of open trends and
platform used to open newsletters, design changes are also needed to best optimize the
newsletter’s performance. Part Four: Redesign will talk more about what the BCBusiness
Daily Newsletter had succeeded in doing based on best practices (Part Two: E-mail
Marketing) and what other areas can be improved based on the data provided in this
chapter.
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PART FOUR:
REDESIGN
During my internship, I analyzed the data (Part Three: BCBusiness Daily Newsletter) and
connected it with the best practices (Part Two: E-mail Marketing). An assessment was
made to determine the design improvements needed to ensure and improve the newsletter’s
success and to best optimize the newsletter’s performance. In this chapter, I will talk more
about the process of combining best practices theory with actual practice and what the
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter had succeeded in doing based on best practices (Part Two:
E-mail Marketing) and what other areas can be improved upon based on the data (Part
Three: BCBusiness Daily Newsletter).
BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER
When the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter was published for the first time using
ActiveCampaign on November 29, 2016, the design was clean and simple (see Figure 2).
It had all the elements needed for an effective newsletter: a clear call-to-action for
subscribers to both the newsletter and print magazine, clearly displayed advertorial, web
version option, and the date and social media buttons at the top.
The BCBusiness Daily Newsletter then underwent a major layout change on October 11,
2017 (see Appendix 1). The reason for the change was to accommodate more advertisers
(the newsletter design before only accommodated up to six display ads and one
advertorial). Since the new layout was implemented, the open rate dropped from 33 percent
to 17 percent. Subscribers also dropped from 4,200 to 3,700 in mid-2017. The rate drops
indicate that the new design was not working for BCBusiness subscribers, so a change had
to be made.
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As of June 18, 2018, the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter already had measurable back-end
data, audience profiles, optimized scheduling (7AM, five days a week, with specific
content each day), the use of an e-mail marketing tool (ActiveCampaign), the option to
unsubscribe (legally compliant), autoresponders for new subscribers, marketing
automation for follow-up e-mails, and the ability to test and proof the newsletter before
sending it out to the subscribers each time.
However, based on the 13 steps to create a successful newsletter (Part Two: E-mail
Marketing) and the data from BCBusiness Daily Newsletter (Part Three: BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter), improvements could be made to the BCBusiness Daily Newsletter by doing
the following:
• Decide on a clear goal, as mentioned in Step One: Define the Newsletter’s Goal,
• Design a template that fits the newsletter’s goal, company branding, and audience
profiles, as mentioned in Step Five: Design A Template,
• Create caption and subject lines that drive subscribers to open the newsletter and
click on the articles, as mentioned in Step Six: Create a Body Content That People
Want to Read and Step Seven: Pick The Best Subject Lines.
• Increase social media visibility, as mentioned in Step Eight: Allow People to
Subscribe and Share. The easier it is for subscribers to share an article, the higher
the chance they will share and increase traffic to the website. Furthermore, there
should be a visible mailing list subscription form on the website to help increase
the subscriber rate.
• Use a clear call-to-action, as mentioned in Step Nine: Use Only One Call-To-Action
(CTA)
• Consistently test and analyze newsletter prototypes before it is sent out. As
mentioned in Step Twelve: Test Using Different Web Browsers and E-mail Clients
and Step Thirteen: Measure, Analyze, and Optimize, it is important to know what
elements work in the newsletter and what needs improvement. These two steps are
important to test how a prototype works, especially on various platforms.
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• Optimizing each platform used to open e-mails, open rate, click rate, and
unsubscribe rate data (Part Three: BCBusiness Daily Newsletter) could also help to
determine if a newsletter needs improvement and in which areas.
Figure 2 First BCBusiness Daily Newsletter
Published Using ActiveCampaign (November 29, 2016)
In order to accommodate the suggestions above, several prototypes were made and
proposed to the editorial team and Hinton. The design was reworked in order to create a
less cluttered newsletter and to highlight the hierarchy. These design decisions were
34
integrated in order to improve the overall performance of the newsletter and to strengthen
BCBusiness’s brand.
FIRST PROTOTYPES
Based on the newsletter design best practices (Part Two: E-mail Marketing) and the overall
findings (Part Three: BCBusiness Daily Newsletter), two prototypes were made (see figure
3). Changes in the prototype were meant to reduce the clutter of the overall design,
strengthen the BCBusiness’s branding, and increase personalization and shareability,
which in turn helps to increase the subscriber rate, open rate, and click rate and decrease
the unsubscribe rate. The first two prototypes were also made with two design choices for
BCBusiness, one with a black banner feature and the other with a white banner. The
changes with the first two prototypes were as follows:
• Social media buttons are placed on top for visibility,
• Ads were stripped out completely,
• The feature story is the biggest in size with prime placement front and center,
• Renamed “Daily Biz” to “On The Biz” with brief descriptions and a more visible
“Read More>>” hyperlink,
• A catchy title and short but inviting captions are used for all the stories, and
• An information footer with black background to indicate the publication and the
company.
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Figure 3 BCBusiness Daily Newsletter Re-designed
(First Prototypes with Two Different Aesthetics)
The first two prototypes were presented to Hinton and the BCBusiness editorial team. The
feedback from Hinton was to include more space to accommodate display ads. Hinton also
mentioned that some changes were hard to reproduce because of the implemented design
features, such as creating clickable banners.
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SECOND PROTOTYPE
The second prototype was made to accommodate feedback from Hinton. Based on the
feedback, I redesigned the newsletter to provide more ad space and to make the newsletter
template easier to produce on a daily basis. Furthermore, as the design was already less
cluttered on the first two prototypes, a more detailed design was made by sectioning each
element of the newsletter. Changes to the second prototype (see figure 4) were as follows:
• A new BCBusiness banner with the specific words “Daily Newsletter” to
differentiate between the daily newsletter and the event newsletter,
• The newsletter’s date was added to make it easier for readers to archive,
• The events banner was made bigger and labeled for detail and a call-to-action
button,
• Spaces for display ads were made and clearly labeled and sectioned, and
• A banner on the bottom was created as a call-to-action to subscribe to the print
magazine.
The second prototype was presented to Hinton. The feedback from Hinton was to provide
more ad space at the bottom of the newsletter. Furthermore, Hinton asked that the events
be listed as some event promoters paid for their event to be added on the event list in the
newsletter’s.
THIRD PROTOTYPE
The third prototype was made to accommodate feedback from Hinton. The main aspects
to be addressed were to change the event banner to an event list. Thus, a third prototype
was made (see figure 5). The main changes were to make the event banner smaller and
place it on the right in line with the list of featured events, with a call-to-action to “See all
events”.
The third prototype was submitted to the editorial, sales, and marketing teams of
BCBusiness for approval and implementation with no further feedback.
37
Figure 4 BCBusiness Daily Figure 5 BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter Re-designed Newsletter Re-designed
(Second Prototype) (Third Prototype)
38
BCBUSINESS EVENT NEWSLETTER
BCBusiness also publishes an event newsletter to notify and sell tickets to subscribers about
events that are being held by BCBusiness, such as Top 100, 30 Under 30, and other
gatherings or workshops. BCBusiness Event Newsletter is separate from BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter, with a much lower frequency of publication—it is only sent out when an event
is being held by BCBusiness. The BCBusiness Event Newsletter also uses
ActiveCampaign, but the existing design was very plain. The BCBusiness Event
Newsletter’s template is a regular, text-based e-mail with no visible BCBusiness branding.
When asked why there is no design used, Hinton said, “It is like writing an e-mail to a
friend. We want to keep it to the personal level for the subscribers.” However, as mentioned
in Step Five: Design A Template [Part Two: E-mail Marketing], any newsletter is a part of
a company’s branding, which means that design consistency is key. Using the same
template, logo, and color theme across will help subscribers to recognize and familiarize
themselves with the brand, which also affects loyalty and subscriber’s engagement in the
long run.
Thus, a prototype for the event newsletter (see figure 6) was made to strengthen the
BCBusiness’s brand. Another rationale was to provide a better-looking design for the
BCBusiness Event Newsletter. The changes were as follows:
• The BCBusiness banner features the word “Events” to differentiate the daily
newsletter from the event newsletter,
• A large portrait banner with a catchy title and a short but inviting caption,
• Description of the events,
• A call-to-action button to “Buy Tickets,”
• Information footer with a black background to indicate the publication and the
company, and
• Social media buttons on the bottom center.
When presented to Hinton, he said, “There is too much going on. The key for the event
newsletter is to be engaging and personal by providing a text-based newsletter” (Hinton,
39
2018). As a result, a last prototype for the event newsletter was made, with changes such
as (see figure 7):
• The BCBusiness banner placed on the left with a smaller call-to-action button, and
the rest of the content are text based and
• Information footer converted into text with smaller type.
The last prototype was submitted to the editorial, sales, and marketing teams of BCBusiness
for approval and implementation with no further feedback.
Figure 6 BCBusiness Event Figure 7 BCBusiness Event
Newsletter Re-designed Newsletter Re-designed
(First Prototype) (Final Prototype)
40
Finally, redesign attempts were concluded by sending all prototypes of both the daily and
event newsletter to Hinton for further consideration and implementation. Based on all the
prototypes that were made and the feedback received from the BCBusiness team, it can be
concluded that it is imperative to incorporate all 13 steps (Part Two: E-mail Marketing) in
conjugation with data analysis (Part Three: BCBusiness Daily Newsletter), then align it
with the magazine’s design and editorial features to create a successful newsletter.
BCBusiness needed to define a clear goal for the newsletter—whether it is to drive people
to their website, to sell ads, or something else entirely. From the editorial’s perspective,
subject lines could be shorter and more inviting. More personalized, curated, and exclusive
content should help to increase subscriber rates. From the design perspective, better
placement for social media buttons could increase shareability. A clear call-to-action and
better organized display ads and advertorial would also help to make the overall layout
appear less cluttered. A better overall design could also be made to strengthen the branding
and make the newsletter cleaner and more scannable.
Furthermore, finding a middle ground between a business’s best interests and best practices
in theory is very important. This means creating a design that serves the business’s
objectives and goals by addressing all the feedback while still making the newsletter look
aesthetically pleasing and conform to e-mail marketing’s best practices (Part Two: E-Mail
Marketing).
As this report was being written, Hinton and the rest of the BCBusiness team have
developed and used some of the proposed design elements for the new and revamped
BCBusiness Daily Newsletter (see figure 8). The new design was implemented on October
1, 2018 and the open rate had increased from 23.11 percent to 26.43 percent just on the
first day it went live (see Appendix 9). Other changes in editorial content were also
implemented in the e-mail’s subject line, as well as in the article captions. The inspirational
quotes were replaced by facts of the day. Elements from the design prototype are widely
used, like the BCBusiness banner, information footer, subscribe banner, and event button.
41
As for the BCBusiness Event Newsletter, no suggested design elements from the prototype
have been used so far.
Figure 8 Current BCBusiness Daily Newsletter
(October 3, 2018)
42
CONCLUSION
The marketing landscape has shifted from conventional door-to-door promotions to e-mail
marketing, and businesses in different industries are in competition for that digital
attention. E-mail marketing offers more than just higher ROI, it also saves time and its
effectiveness can be measured compared to conventional marketing (Emarketer, 2015).
Best practices and business models to create a successful e-mail marketing campaign have
been studied and proven, such as using enticing subject lines, simple but engaging design,
and personalized content. CWM and BCBusiness understood the urgency of having an e-
mail marketing channel alongside their website and social media, and BCBusiness’s Daily
Newsletter had acted as one of the funnels for maximizing audience engagement and to
drive traffic to their website.
However, BCBusiness’s Daily Newsletter’s performance continuously declined over the
years. As of June 24, 2018, BCBusiness’s Daily Newsletter’s open rate and click rate had
dropped by almost 50 percent since they first started using ActiveCampaign on November
29, 2016. Their active subscriber rate, which was about 4,200 in mid 2017, had also
dropped to about 3,700 by mid 2018. Fortunately, BCBusiness understood the need to
improve in order to boost their newsletter’s performance, especially to increase their open
rate, click rate, and subscriber rate and to decrease their unsubscribe rate. These goals
would put them in the race alongside CWM’s other newsletters, such as Vancouver
Magazine.
The BCBusiness Daily Newsletter had already succeeded on following the best practices
for e-mail marketing, such as having measurable back-end data, maintaining good
scheduling, using an e-mail marketing tool, being legally compliant, using autoresponders
and marketing automation, and having the ability to test the newsletter before sending it
out. Improvements to the newsletter could be made by defining a clear goal, using more
43
personalized and curated content, and making a better overall design to increase
shareability, strengthen the branding, and make the newsletter cleaner and less crowded.
Posed with these findings, I tried to accommodate them by making prototypes that could
accommodate display ads without overcrowding and messiness. The editorial team was
also asked to implement inviting subject lines and captions to drive subscribers to open the
e-mail and click on the articles.
When asked about future implementation of the recommended design to strip off the ads
completely, Hinton said, “…This is a nice design, but we still need to sell ads” (Hinton,
2018). His feedback was backed by Harper: “…Our newsletter is one of our sources of
income, which is through ads” (Harper, 2018). This is understandable because in this
industry, the more money they can generate, the more room they have for creativity. The
same also happens in Vancouver Magazine; when asked about not having ads on their
newsletters, McLachlan said, “We do have ads, but not display ads. More custom content
… But yeah, we would love to have display ads. Whatever can generate money.”
(McLachlan, 2018).
As this report was being written, Hinton and the rest of the BCBusiness team have
developed and used some of the proposed design elements—BCBusiness banner,
information footer, subscribe banner, and event button—for the new BCBusiness Daily
Newsletter (see figure 4.8). The BCBusiness team have also made some changes in the
editorial, such as the newsletter’s subject line and the article captions, in accordance to e-
mail marketing’s best practices (Part Two: E-Mail Marketing). However, no design
elements suggested for the BCBusiness Event Newsletter prototype were used.
Finally, this project showed me that finding a middle ground between what is considered
best practices in general and what is best for a particular business is very important. This
also means creating a newsletter that is both aesthetically pleasing and serves the business’s
objectives and goals.
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Looking forward, just as advancement in technology contributed greatly to the rise of e-
mail marketing, it is possible that new technologies will continue to support or even replace
e-mail as a form of marketing. Technology like voice assistants, such as Google Assistant,
Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa are now capable of reading,
replying to, deleting, archiving, and switching e-mails (Rodriguez, 2019). Those five
functions can be beneficial for busy subscribers who want to be engaged in activities while
checking out their e-mails. Although the functions are still limited, especially for more
complex operations like subscribe or unsubscribe to e-mails, it is possible that in the future
this technology will advance even more. As e-mail marketers, our job is to provide the
most value we possibly can to our subscribers. (Rodriguez, 2019). Voice assistants will
likely be part of the future of e-mail marketing and e-mail marketers need to account for it
in their strategy, although the use of it, widespread or not, is still unknown.
45
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APPENDIX 1. BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER (MAY 2, 2018)
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APPENDIX 2.1 TOTAL SUBSCRIBERS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
APPENDIX 2.2 ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
APPENDIX 2.3 NEW SUBSCRIBERS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
52
APPENDIX 3.1 TOTAL OPEN RATE
APPENDIX 3.2 TOTAL DID NOT OPEN RATE
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APPENDIX 3.3 OPEN RATE A
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APPENDIX 3.4 OPEN RATE B
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APPENDIX 4 PLATFORM USED TO OPEN NEWSLETTERS
APPENDIX 5.1 OPEN TRENDS BASED ON THE DAY
APPENDIX 5.2 OPEN TRENDS BASED ON THE HOUR
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APPENDIX 6 UNSUBSCRIBERS RATE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
APPENDIX 7.1 TOTAL CLICK RATE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
APPENDIX 7.2 TOTAL DID NOT CLICK RATE THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
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APPENDIX 7.3 CLICK RATE
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APPENDIX 8 TOTAL HITS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS
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APPENDIX 9 BCBUSINESS DAILY NEWSLETTER OLD VS NEW DESIGN
STATISTICS